Search Archives

Enter Carl Nicks?

Beat writers eye-RAH! Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune and Pat Yasinskas of ESPN were buzzing about the possibility of Saints star left guard Carl Nicks landing on the Buccaneers yesterday.

New Orleans, as Yasinskas pointed out during an interview on Primetime on WHBO-AM 1040, is in salary cap hell and must make eye-opening roster cuts and moves in the coming days. One move is possibly using its franchise tag on Drew Brees, which means they wouln’t have it available to sign free-agent-to-be Nicks. If Nicks hits the market, the Bucs should pounce, so says Yasinskas and Kaufman.

For those unfamiliar, Nicks is a manbeast listed at 6-5, 345 pounds, and is widely accepted as the best left guard in football. He’s been an All-Pro the last two season and will command a fortune in free agency. Davin Joseph locked up a seven-year $52 million deal last year, and Nicks will command more.

Now the Saints’ right guard, Jahri Evans, already earns more than Joseph. Would the Saints invest that much money into two guards, given their salary cap issues? Would the Bucs, even though they have miles of cap room?

Clouding the answers to those two questions is the fact that the 2012 draft is widely considered to be very deep for offensive linemen.

Of course, if the Bucs can score Nicks, Jeremy Zuttah, if re-signed, would land at center and Jeff Faine and his $6 million would be gone.

Joe would love if the Bucs landed Nicks. If Greg Schiano plans to pound the rock like he says, then two Pro Bowl guards and the highest paid offensive line in football would seem to be a no-brainer.

42 Responses to “Enter Carl Nicks?”

If they did this and 1 CB in FA, I will be happy! Another CB in round 1 (doesn’t have to be Claiborne), a LB or RB in 2 and 3 (order doesn’t matter to me), speedy WR somewhere down the line (Joe Adams, Jarius Wright), I’d call it a success!

Yea if we made this kind of upgrade, I would no longer get so upset if we drafted T-Rich at 5. My whole issue is running behind this underachieving line would be a waste of a 5th overall drafted RB. But behind a line with that kind of interior, and 3 pro-bowlers overall, I’ll be on board.

One concern I do have is that somehow, the Saints were always high in sacks allowed. I know, I had Brees as my fantasy QB. It was kind of baffling how that was possible at times. I have no idea how a line like the Saints could do that, but I hope for that kind of coin, Nicks had nothing to do with it himself.

@Joe
“Of course, if the Bucs can score Nicks, Jeremy Zuttah, if re-signed, would land at center and Jeff Faine and his $6 million would be gone.”

I don’t see Faine getting cut, not this year. Both Nicks and Faine played in the same system…though not at the same time.

The $6 million is meaningless at this point.

Faine is stability with a new offensive coordinator. They are not going to get rid of that stability and replace it with a “maybe” guy like Zuttah. Not when our offensive coordinator is accustomed to top-notch Oline play and his QB having time to go vertical.

Not to mention the late start. It makes more sense to keep Faine a year and draft a true center, or sign one that is young (like an undrafted guy looking for a shot to prove himself).

Zuttah is a good fill in…he is not a true starting center. I keep saying this and no one seems to hear it. My concern is that people won’t get it until it’s too late.

I really like this thread. For way too long, it has been almost “accepted wisdom” that we have a good O line in Tampa. We don’t. We did not protect Freeman well last year, and opened way too few holes for our runners. I lie what WisconsinBuc says. Let’s start building a real smash mouth team, starting with this years draft.
Let’s try and sign Nicks if possible, or draft some real studs for the O Line.

Now that I’ve had an hour to fantasize about Nicks in FA, a healthy dose of reality is starting to set in. BPG mentioned the number of sacks on Brees last year which makes Brees well aware of the importance of Carl Nicks.

As much as the idea distresses me, I think Brees and the Saints get something done over the weekend, even if they have to come back and restructure the deal to reserve the tag for Nicks and scrape up enough money for Colston. Meachem is probably odd man out.

I’m going to continue to live in fantasy land. Seeing Glenn from Georgia do his thing on Saturday only ramped up my Nicks desire. Yes I typed desire. Even undersized Zutah could excel at Center with Joseph and Nicks book ending him. Running left behind the Penn Nicks beef store just sounds great. Can Joseph pull? @Macabee: My Combine love at first sight and ground to the nub axe over not going after Calvin Johnson has me focused on Stephen Hill. 6’4 4.3 and didn’t drop a ball?!? We can’t fill all our needs this year anyway. Maybe we roll a hard 6 and get Cruz on steroids? Well, not steroids.

MJM, I would love to have Stephen Hill. I knew about Hill before the combine. I was hoping he would stay under the radar and we could get a shot at him in a later round to go along with Ed Gant who has similar measurables. I was thinking we could develop our own Randy Moss! With that combine performance, he is probably going to move up. With no 4th and so many needs, he’s probably a stretch for us.

Never going to happen. What in the world would make you think the Glazers will spend the money to not only get Nicks but Carr too? Would it be great? Of course but history shows we wont. We will get a handfull of B or C level free agents and “build” through the draft. Come on people! Open your eyes.

they basically have no choice. Not this coming season but the one after it every team has to spend something like 90-95% of their salary cap space. They are so far under right now it would be shocking if they didn’t at least cut the difference in half this off-season. They are going to be spending money, regardless of want or need.

I would love Nicks as our LG!!! Nicks LG, Joseph RG, Zuttah C, Penn LT/RT, if Mo is gone I would hope to get an OT the more I think about it. If Kalil is there then him for sure. If he is gone then Reily Reiff would do just fine. If we were to somehow get Kalil he could be our LT and we could move Penn to RT. Talk about the most dominate line in football!!! We have to find a replacement for Trueblood. IF we don’t get a LT early in the 1st then we could look for a true RT later on in the draft.

Here’s something interesting. PFT is reporting that the real cap number isn’t actually known by teams yet…and that all appearances now look like it will be lower than expected. All these teams, a week from Free Agency, that think they’re in line with the cap may not be.

they basically have no choice. Not this coming season but the one after it every team has to spend something like 90-95% of their salary cap space. They are so far under right now it would be shocking if they didn’t at least cut the difference in half this off-season. They are going to be spending money, regardless of want or need.
______________________________

Not only that…if they wait until next year to start spending, it will make most contracts come up for renewal at around the same time…a recipe for disaster if the team is good by then.

Michigan center David Molk sounds like Warren Sapp when he runs his mouth…I kind of like it, lol.
_____________________
“The fact they could consider any center better than me is pretty stupid,” Molk said.

NFL Network’s Mike Mayock recently called Molk “very much a finesse guy,” and Molk took issue with that.

“He never played against me,” Molk said of Mayock. “I don’t think a finesse player has ever had defensive linemen quit during a game; quit and give up because you’re hurting them. I don’t think a finesse player has ever done what I do, which is just ground kids out of the hole. I think the fact he called me a finesse player is because he hasn’t watched me on film.”

________________________

If everyone really wants Faine replaced…and there is no chance we can get Konz with our 2nd pick…maybe we should consider this guy.

I remember Sapp talking much the same way when he was approaching the draft. Having attitude like that on the Oline would be…interesting.

Adding Carl Nicks would be incredible. While I don’t think we have nearly as bad a line as some on here would say, you can’t go wrong adding a guy like Nicks. Make him the highest paid player in the league, I don’t care. Just get him.

PFT raised an interesting point about both Nicks and Brees being represented by CAA. It would obviously be more beneficial to them for Brees to be franchised which would be the best case scenario for us if we want Nicks.

I know we have to spend. What I am saying is there is no way we pay Nicks $60 mil with already having Joseph and I would be shocked if we get an A level free agent. We will spend our money on B and C guys to make up that cap room. I am not going to get my hopes up, with zero history to back it up. Dominick’s comments today are encouraging. I pray I am wrong.

I agree, Molk is a beast. I may be a bit biased but I have watched all of his games for the last four years and I can tell you the guy is really good. Would love to have him with the Bucs. (He put up 41 reps at the combine, anything but a finesse player)

I think the talk about signing FAs, is just hay for the sheep.
Expect them to stay true to their policy of the last 7 years.- cheapest franchise in football- both in player payroll and coaching staff salary!